Where Does Palestine Fit in the Present Conflict in Lebanon?
One of the underreported motives of the capture by Hizbollah of two Israeli soldiers was its attempt to help out the besieged Palestinians. For those with short memories, Gaza was being pounded indiscriminately in what many considered as a collective punishment of the Palestinians because of their capture of an Israeli soldier. It is unclear whether the war on Lebanon has helped or hurt the embattled Palestinians of Gaza. On the one hand, the vast majority of political and media attention has been shifted almost exclusively to put out the fires in Lebanon and north of Israel allowing the Israelis to continue punishing Palestinians without any international protest. Palestinians continued to be killed on a daily basis, not only in Gaza but also in Nablus. Nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed since this round began with July 26 as one of the bloodiest days. Twenty-three Palestinians including children and mothers were amongst the victims of the Israeli attacks. The fact that Hizbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers followed the capture of one soldier by Palestinians contributed to the anger in Israeli circles. The newly elected political leaders (Olmert and Peretz), whose résumés lack many military credits, felt they had to prove themselves in this field. The army, which had been caught flat-footed, felt they needed to make up for their slighted pride. And security strategists continued to repeat the need to regain their long-held deterrence advantage, which has been damaged and needs to be restored. The statements by Hizbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, which were also echoed by Hamas leaders, about negotiating a prisoner swap with Israel for all three captured prisoners further compounded the problem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas quickly realised that this was a bad idea and would have a negative impact on Palestinians. He has tried very hard to separate the two cases knowing full well that in this particular situation, dealing with one Israeli soldier held in Gaza is much easier than that of those held by Hizbollah. But while the war on Lebanon distracted attention from Gaza and complicated the situation, international leaders and experts were not as quick to discount the relationship. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Ramallah, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s statement and the analysis of all experts put the need to solve the Palestinian issue as key to any regional solution. In a special cover report Time magazine listed the need to address the Palestinian issue as second in a six-point answer as to the best way to defuse the conflict. The crisis between Lebanon and Israel has brought to the forefront two very important issues for the peoples of the region: Prisoners and unilateralism. After the two concurrent attacks designed to capture soldiers, the wisdom of holding prisoners for a long time is now being questioned. The Israeli media reported that Israel’s national security adviser Giora Eiland had advised Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in May that Israel should hand over the Sheeba Farms area and return Lebanese prisoners to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora but Olmert reportedly said there was no need. Holding 300 Lebanese and nearly 10,000 Palestinians (most without charge or trial) has proven to be a major source of anger to the Arab peoples of the region. One group of prisoners that will very likely benefit from the present violence are Jordanian prisoners still held in Israeli jails. Jordan, only one of two Arab countries to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has not been able to get their 30 prisoners released through diplomatic means. Perhaps the biggest blow in this conflict will be dealt to the concept of unilateralism. Both the uncoordinated withdrawals — from south Lebanon by the Labour party after 22 years of occupation and from Gaza by the Likud after 39 years of occupation — have proved that one cannot simply withdraw from an area then forget about it. The needs of the people on the other side of the border cannot be ignored. The unilateralism, which the Israelis overwhelmingly voted for in the recent elections, is also based on the idea that security can be somehow achieved by erecting high concrete walls. If anything, the barrage of all types of rockets, whether homemade or sophisticated, have shown the folly of such thinking. Although the West Bank has not witnessed the use of rockets against Israel, there is no reason why Palestinians will not resort to such weapons if the walls continue to be built deep inside their territories and the Israelis continue to act with arrogance and superiority. Military strategists are probably the first to agree on the limits of military power in achieving long-term peace. It is time that political leaders on both sides understand that they need to work together through negotiations to solve the problems that simply cannot, and should not, be solved by brute force.
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